Guy Elliott stands down from Shell board

Royal Dutch Shell plc has announced that Guy Elliott has stood down as a non-executive Director of the company with immediate effect.

Commenting on the announcement, Royal Dutch Shell plc chair, Charles Holliday said: "We fully respect and appreciate Guy's decision which is related to his involvement in legal proceedings regarding his former employment at Rio Tinto. We will miss his insightful counsel and leadership and would like to thank him for his seven years of valuable contribution to the Shell Board. We sincerely hope he satisfactorily resolves those proceedings and, that in that event, he would like to be considered for rejoining the Board."

The news comes after US regulators charged his former company Rio Tinto with fraud for not coming clean about a coal deal in Africa.

In a complaint filed on 17 October, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged mining company Rio Tinto and its former chief executive Tom Albanese and ex-finance director Guy Elliott with fraud for inflating the value of coal assets acquired for US$3.7 billion and sold a few years later for US$50 million.

Rio Tinto intends to “vigorously defend itself against these allegations,” the company said in a statement on the SEC charges.